Associations of habitual fish oil use with risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19-related outcomes in UK: national population based cohort study

Abstract

Objectives: To prospectively investigate the associations of habitual fish oil use with Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection, hospital admission, or mortality with Corona Virus Disease-19 (COVID-19) in a large-scale cohort. Design: Prospective population-based cohort study. Setting: UK Biobank. Participants: A total of 110 440 participants aged 37 -73 years who completed a questionnaire on supplement use, which included fish oil at baseline were enrolled between 2006 and 2010 and followed up until 2022. Main exposure: All participants filled out questionnaires about the habitual use of supplements, including fish oil. Main outcome measures: SARS-CoV-2 infection, COVID-19 hospital admission and COVID-19 mortality. Results: At baseline, 29 424 (26.6%) of the 110 440 participants reported habitual use of fish oil supplements. The multivariable adjusted hazard ratios for habitual users of fish oil versus non-users were 0.95 (0.93 to 0.98) for SARS-CoV-2 infection among participants with follow-up time less than 12.1 years but no significant associations were observed for participants with follow-up time more than 12.1 years. For COVID-19-related outcomes, the hazard ratios were 0.79 (95% confidence interval 0.71 to 0.88) for COVID-19 hospital admission and 0.72 (0.60 to 0.87) for COVID-19 mortality. For COVID-19-related outcomes, the association seemed to be stronger among those with longstanding illness. The Cox proportional hazard analysis after propensity-score matching yielded consistent results. Conclusions: Habitual fish oil supplement is associated with a lower risk of hospital admission and mortality with COVID-19, but not associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection in the population with more than 12.1 years of follow-up.

Association between blood N-3 fatty acid levels and the risk of coronavirus disease 2019 in the UK Biobank

“…Other reports from within the UKBB have described significant inverse relationships between the reported fish oil supplement use (which is associated with a higher O3I) and risks of death from all causes and incident cardiovascular events [ 30 ] as well as primary liver cancer [ 31 ], inflammatory bowel disease [ 32 ], dementia [ 33 ], and, as noted earlier, COVID-19 [ 17 ].…”

“…[ 16 ] both recently reported that higher DHA levels, among several other biomarkers, were associated with a lower risk of infection or hospitalization with COVID-19. In addition, the reported use of fish oil supplements was recently linked with a lower risk of COVID-19 in the UKBB cohort [ 17 ]. The present study aimed to expand upon the work of these investigators by examining the n-3 relations with additional COVID-19 outcomes (i.e., death), performing more granular analyses (i.e., quintiles), exploring the effects of several covariates on these relationships, and translating n-3 biostatus into the O3I, a more commonly used measure of n-3 status.…”

Bioactive omega-3 fatty acids are associated with reduced risk and severity of SARS-CoV-2 infection

“…The research of Harris et al. [ 1 ] extends the earlier studies based on the UK BioBank dataset [ [4] , [5] , [6] ] and offers a more complex analysis of these data. The research of Harris et al.…”

“…Harris et al. [ 1 ] are not the first to report inverse associations been long-chain omega-3 fatty acids and SARS-CoV-2-related outcomes [ [4] , [5] , [6] , [7] , [8] , [9] , [10] ]. Using the same UK BioBank dataset as Harris et al.…”

“…Ma et al. [ 6 ] reported that habitual fish oil use was associated with lower risk of hospital admission with COVID-19 (hazard ratio: 0.79; 95% CI: 0.69, 0.83) and mortality from COVID-19 (hazard ratio: 0.69; 95% CI: 0.58, 0.83) after adjustment for age and sex, and this remained significant after further adjustment for age, sex, and multiple other covariates. Beyond UK BioBank, a study based upon self-reporting through a mobile phone application identified that among 372,720 UK participants who had a test for infection with SARS-CoV-2 (6.3% tested positive), users of fish oil supplements had a 12% lower risk of testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 than nonusers, after adjusting for age, sex, body mass index, sign-up health status, and multiple testing [ 7 ].…”